CyberCoyote -- December 15, 2005

NEWS

We had our December business meeting today. The main item of discussion was a larger room for our meetings. It's time to get our reservations in for next season. The alternatives aren't very promising, but Carol will look into them again.

I found Chuck Green's presentation on how GPS works very interesting, even though I still rely on my own sense of direction myself. :-) The precision involved, for example, for the clocks in the satellites is amazing -- 1 sec maximum drift in 20,000 years. GPS is also good enough to use to land your airplane in the fog.

NOTES and NOTICES

You may recall a survey about Internet classes in CyberCoyote a few weeks ago. I haven't followed up as I was inundated with responses. :-J Actually, I've had my head down trying to stay ahead of the students in the "Building a Personal Website" class. But now a tentative list of classes is posted on bulletin board in the Chaparral Room. Please stop by, see what's there, and indicate your preferences or add your own ideas.

COMPUTERS

PC for Christmas? 'Tis the season to be shopping for a PC. Here's how to match up what you want with what you want to spend.
http://www.desktoppipeline.com/174909812?cid=rssfeed_pl_dtp -- Bill O'Brien, Desktop Pipeline

Wondering what a Media Center PC is all about? With a Media Center PC, you can watch and record live TV, view photos on your TV screen, set up a home theater with surround sound, and much more. A lot of people -- including me -- don't seem to be intrigued. That has the manufactures wondering how to overcome the inertia.
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3649130 -- article
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3649129 -- Media Center PC

SOFTWARE

"The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities": I agree with about 80% of "Gizmo's Top Picks". I don't know much about the other 20%, but I suspect you wouldn't go wrong with them either. He has thoughtful reviews of free Internet, Security, Photo, Office, Windows maintenance and several other programs and utilities.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

SECURITY

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has some well-written advice on safeguarding your online brokerage accounts (or any financial accounts for that matter). http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/onlinebrokerage.htm

DIVERSION

Skills that are still important in the world of Computers.
http://vote.comicalert.com/bc/153052

Learning to fly an F-22:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/12/06/1102182227308.html

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